Savannah and Tybee Island

This past week, I spent 5 days chaperoning a 7th and 8th grade field trip to Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia.  I was rather worried going into the trip, as it wasn't forecasted to be be super warm, and it was right before the Pittsburgh Marathon, so I was worried about exhaustion leading up to the race, but it all worked out!

We drove down to Savannah on Monday, where we went on a walking tour of the city and then had dinner at Lady & Sons, a Paula Dean restaurant.  Then, we headed to Tybee Island where we stopped at Sea Kayak Georgia for an introduction with our guides, and then headed to our cabins at River's End Campground.

 Found a McDonough street!

On Tuesday, we went kayaking.  We left from right behind Sea Kayak Georgia, where you can only put in during high tide.  We paddled through the waterways between marsh grass, into Chimney Creek, into Tybee Creek.  We landed on Little Tybee for lunch and exploration, then paddled to a sandbar for more exploration before heading back to Tybee for some downtime and dinner.

Little Tybee Island

On Wednesday, we went stand-up paddle boarding.  I wanted to try it out, but was a little worried about committing to it for a whole day, not sure how hard it would be or how sore I would be afterwards.  I didn't know when I would get another chance though, so I went for it.  I was half tempted to stay on my knees, but after a little bit, I tried standing up.  My legs would not stop shaking, and I felt super off balance, so I ended up dropping back to my knees.  I had to try again though...and the second time, I felt much more stable, and managed to stay up.   We paddled to Myrtle Island for our picnic lunch, and to explore the driftwood trees, and then paddled to the sandbar again.  The kids all went off to the middle of the sandbar where they built some kind of fortress out of the sand, and used a dead cannonball jellyfish to "bowl."  They named it Jelly-Bowling... (At the end of the trip, several of them named that as their favorite memory).  I really liked the driftwood trees, but the other really cool part of this day is that we had a whole pod of dolphins swimming next to us for a lot of our paddling time!

On Thursday, we drove about 75 minutes to Ebenezer Creek, a Cypress-Tupelo fresh water creek, where we got into canoes for our exploration.  It was the first time I ever got in a canoe, but found it not any harder than kayaking.  I was paired with a 7th grade girl, and it took us very little time to figure out the teamwork part of paddling a canoe.  We were lucky enough to have high enough water to go into the "Cathedral," which is where the trees grow close together in the swamp and you can paddle between them.

On Friday, and packed up and headed out, with a stop at Fort Pulaski for a quick tour.  We could have spent more time there, but we were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, so no one was interested in really exploring.

A Sunrise, a Scenic Railroad, and a Rainbow...What a day!

I'm in my seventh year of teaching, and so far, there have only been 2 years that my job description was the same.  The other five years have all been different.  This year's "something new" is that I spend 6+ hrs a week as a teacher assistant in the 2nd/3rd grade classroom.  Somehow, this turned into me getting asked to go along on their field trip today.  Since most of my Thursday schedule involves that class anyway, it wasn't too hard to take care of my 2 other classes and be free to go along on the field trip.

I suspected that I would be tired after a day-long field trip, so I got up extra early this morning to get my run done and out of the way.  4.8 miles in the moonlight, watching the fog in the valleys, and then I somehow got cleaned up and fed and it was barely past 7.  So, I headed to work early to get some things done before we left on the field trip.  I glanced out the window somewhere around 7:25 and saw a gorgeous pink and blue sky.

Less than 5 minutes later, the sky was gray and cloudy.  Not a hint of color to be seen.  I got some work done and then we piled into a few cars and headed towards the Cass Scenic Railroad.  Highlights/Entertainment on the trip up included 7 yr old girls singing along to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and a 7 yr old boy requesting his favorite song : Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."  Thankfully, "Wrecking Ball" was not on the iPod. I enjoyed getting to talk to a parent I didn't know very well, while the kids sang and played games in the back.  I also enjoyed the scenery.  Some trees are still green and too many have already lost their leaves, but there's still a decent amount of color on the rest of the trees.  There were a few lingering clouds hanging out in the treetops that looked really cool as well.

Once we arrived at Cass Scenic Railroad, we watched a short film about the history of the old logging town/lumber industry, walked through the little museum, and then boarded the train.

After the trip up the mountain to Whittaker Station and back to Cass, we had a picnic lunch and spent some time on the playground before heading back to school.  The ride back was quite entertaining, but sadly I don't remember the specific funny quotes that I wanted to remember.  I'm tired. Once back at school, I did some work and uploaded/edited the photos from the trip.  I just happened to glance out the window at one point and caught this:

Sometimes, it pays to stay at work late!  But it has been a very long day and I am looking forward to a good night of sleep!